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2 Hammocks, 1 Tarp - first trip report

My six year old daughter and I went out for a test hang Friday night. We recently purchased two Hennessy hammocks and the extra large rainfly came along as part of the package. Perfect, I thought. Two hammocks under one fly. I'll be close in case she freaks out.

Well, it seemed like a good idea and it does work, but not perfectly. I had to hang the fly and her hammock about as high as I could reach. My hammock was a bit low so that she didn't bump into my ridgeline when she got in. I got in and was a bit closer to the ground and plants than I would have wanted. Also, my hammock body stuck out below the edge of the tarp. Blowing rain would have been a problem.

She didn't freak out but she did complain about the thermarest pad I had stuck into her sleeping bag to keep her warm. "It's itchy!" Out it came. I put it under the bag and then she complained. "I'm tipped!" As I had discovered when we set up the hammocks inside and slept in our basement, the pad squirted all over the place. I took it out and she slept until 9 the next morning. Snug as a bug and not cold. It was a mild night. Good thing too because Saturday night it dropped to 39 F. I had set up our tent as a bail out plan just in case and if we had been camping last night, we could have gone back to the ground where the pads work better.

I ordered a super shelter. I thought about making my own but time is limited and skills are lacking. I may attempt to make the second one though once I get a feel for how it works.

No, the tarp really is ginormous. This is the Hennessy Poly fly. I quote

"Size: 144"x 120" hexagonal shape Weight: 1 lb. 9oz , 700 g."

It's big. It's heavy. It came with the hammock. I said ok.

When I can finally afford to buy one, the MacCat Deluxe is going to look small by comparison. The stock Hennessy fly will look like a hammock thong.

I forgot to mention that I am going to try a diffent hanging system when we go three day camping over Memorial weekend. I hope to hang the head of both hammocks on the same tree and the foot on separate trees so that we form two legs of a triangle. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the tarp but I may use it mainly over my daughter and I'll use the stock fly to cover my exposed flank.

Do you mean sharing the same head and foot trees? I figured that the hammocks would bump and smash into each other. The hammocks would be ok but we are both restless sleepers and we may not fare as well. I guess I could try it so that the heads sections are on opposite trees. I've got nothing to loose so I'll try it this weekend.

That's how I do it w/ my 7 year old. I wrap the hammocks so they're not centered on the tree, but the webbing for one comes off the right side of the tree and the webbing for the other one comes off the left side. With a decent sized tree, that's usually enough for us to be comfortable.

You could also offset the heights just a bit so your hips aren't bumping if the trees aren't wide enough to give enough separation.

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story

These both look like great ideas. I will have to get a larger tarp and experiment a bit. I will see what I can do tomorrow after work, with a couple small tarps. I could not experiment today because it was raining.

Gotta agree with BD on this one. If it ain't rainin, it ain't trainin! I think that's the best time to try something new with your setup in the back yard or the back porch or what have you. You're close to a dry, warm place but get to have the benefit of checking your gear for weather protection , etc. I've hung my setup outside on the back porch and slept in it many a night to check something out or just to get a better night's sleep in general. A good night's rest is always becomes a better night's rest in my hammock!

"If you play a Nicleback song backwards, you'll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forward, you'll hear Nickleback." - Dave Grohl